“Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” (Isaiah 44:8)
Isaiah proclaims the uniqueness of the Lord as The Rock. He is the only true deity. In ancient times idols were made of rock or stone or even wood. In contrast to the living God, idols were useless. They were supposed to contain or channel various pagan deities. These were limited by place and time and were useless to help in times of trouble and suffering. Yet the people of God engaged in idolatry and the Lord judged them rather severely. He wanted them to take comfort in Him alone. He is Almighty God who will remain steadfast and true to those He loves through all tribulations and suffering.
We may tend to minimize the concept of the idols because we think of them useless objects as those people worshipped in the days of Isaiah. The idols then were objects which represented spirits and demons. Today many people really do worship such things as statues or images or the demons they represent but idolatry exists is a much more serious and insidious form. An idol is anything that takes the place of Almighty God. An idol exalts and glorifies some thing, person, idea or lifestyle and puts that into the place which should be held by God. Our idols can be our rulers, our form of government, celebrities, money, science, self and even our our family, anything we value or which we place our trust in our times of need. But Almighty God is a Spirit who can be reached anywhere, anytime. He alone is our steadfast rock who holds us up and carries us through the storms of life.